When TCP was first developed, its development was based on the networking and processing capabilities that were currently available at that time. As such, the fundamental aspects of the operation of TCP was predicated on the existing networking and processing technologies. During this time, bandwidth was scarce and high cost, while processing resources by the host processors were considered to be essentially limitless. Over time, with the advent of the Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), bandwidth is no longer scare and expensive. However, the processing resources of the host processors are now regarded as being rather limited. Thus, there currently is a need to provide an efficient and low cost means for improving the current processing resources of the host processors.
When large transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) data packets are to be sent over a computer network, prior to their transmission, they are broken down into smaller segments that are able to pass through all of the network elements, such as routers and switches, that lie between the source computer and the destination computer(s). This process is referred to as segmentation. Segmentation is often performed by the host processor. Offloading this task of segmentation from the host processor will help to improve the processing resources of the host processor.